Odd Pattern of Post Mint Defacing

oldsubguru · February 20, 2013 12:51AM

I have seen this pattern of defacing more than a few times. At first, I thought that it may have been similar to the waffling that the mint does now to found error coins. However, examination showed that this form of defacing occurs on coins in lower grades (G - AU) and I am sure that the mint does not pull coins out of circulation just to put this curious stamp on those coins.

So, has anyone seen this before and what are your ideas where it came from?

CaptHenway · February 20, 2013 1:21AM

I have often thought that a lot of random damage like this is caused by people working in some sort of machine shop that has a machine that is supposed to do whatever the "damage" is to whatever product it is the machine shop produced, caused by an operator either using a coin from his pocket to test the machine, and then spending it, or just plain screwing around with it. Guys are like that.

coinsarefun · February 20, 2013 1:25AM

I think it was created by the collectors wife

Or he himself was practicing

PipestonePete · February 20, 2013 1:28AM

Mmmm.....pie.

Type2 · February 20, 2013 1:58AM

<< I think it was created by the collectors wife

Or he himself was practicing

>>

Did you bake that? looking good.

MsMorrisine · February 20, 2013 1:59AM

vise

DorkGirl · February 20, 2013 2:08AM

<< vise >>

Me too.

lordmarcovan · February 20, 2013 2:40AM

I've seen this pattern on occasion.

The "vise" theory sounds as good to me as any I could have come up with.

SmEagle1795 · February 20, 2013 3:01AM

<< I think it was created by the collectors wife

Or he himself was practicing

>>

That's just mean. Now I want pie...

telephoto1 · February 20, 2013 3:15AM

<< vise >>

This.^ The grip plates/jaws on several types of vises have such a pattern.

ricko · February 20, 2013 6:15AM

Yep... clamped in a vise.... Cheers, RickO

BryceM · February 20, 2013 6:17AM

What? No ice cream?

oldsubguru · February 20, 2013 10:17PM

Thank you for your answers and I can see now that a vice for using a vise would fit.

pmac · February 20, 2013 10:36PM

A new vise, too. The one I grew up with had "worn dies".

SullivanNumismatics · February 21, 2013 1:58AM

Your coin is damaged with a vise (as others have said as well), but just so everyone knows, there are genuine mint errors which where damaged in a vise prior to being struck. I know of two examples which are slabbed (and unquestionably where put in a vise prior to being struck.)

errormaven · February 21, 2013 8:44AM

If you're talking about US cents and nickels struck over Indian 1/4 rupees that were cancelled with a similar pattern of diamond-shaped indendations, I think the cause is different. In the Indian coins, the indentations are strongest in the middle and fade out before reaching the rim. In a coin squeezed in a vise, the indentations are strongest at the rim.

SullivanNumismatics · February 21, 2013 8:46AM

Really? They look a lot like vise marks to me.

Jinx86 · February 21, 2013 9:02AM

Ive made a coin or two like this(modern change) with a air powered steel bander for shipping large farm machinery. The penny was a bit more flattened out when I was done with it though.

errormaven · February 21, 2013 9:46AM

<< Really? They look a lot like vise marks to me. >>

I'll cover the differences between the two patterns in a column I've got coming up on cancelled coins that have been re-struck.

I'm still waiting for the discovery of a contemporary waffled U.S. coin that somehow makes its way back into a striking chamber. I suspect it's only a matter of time until such an error is created by accident or by intent.

SullivanNumismatics · February 21, 2013 9:49AM

I'll be interested in seeing it when it comes out.

Odd Pattern of Post Mint Defacing

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